breeding leghorns pure or crossing with black lorps

[davidb]

I was thinking about crossing some white or brown leghorn hens, with a black lorp roo. and was wondering if anyone knew of any pros or cons of doing so . your input would be very helpful thanks

 

[ve]

Production strain Austra White is a cros of Leghorn and Australorp.Both breeds are good layers and the babies will have more meat then Leghorns

 

[davidb]

I was thinking they would probably be bigger. I had RIR and Australorps, I like to free range mine, But both type wasn't very good forgers, and since I don't care to clean chickens for meat. I was only getting eggs, and they lay good, but feed to egg wasn't that great, And along came Mr. Fox, I ended up with 2 lorps roos before Mr. Fox said bye bye. I bought 2 white leghorn hens and 3 browns. and they forge good , have good feed to egg ratio. But they just don't lay as well as my big hens did, If I breed the 2 together, will I get the best of both in the chicks or the worst of both, Since eggs is all I looking for breed the 2 together or get rid of my roos and get a leghorn roo thanks

 

[davidb]

I guess I could go both ways and see which I like better

 

[Chotii]

Any time you cross two pure-bred animals, you will get "hybrid vigor" in the F1 offspring....this is one of the reasons cattlemen will often run a Hereford bull with their Angus cows, or vice versa: the calves reach market weight faster than their purebred peers, and the heifers, if kept for brood cows, produce more milk for their calves than either of the pure breed would do.

It's reasonable to think if you cross pure Austrolorp on pure Leghorn, you'll get a vigorous egg producer, possibly better than either of the parent breeds. Certainly this is where you get the 'golden sex link' 'black sex link' and other production types from.

You might like to just try it and come back in a year and tell us how the experiment goes?

 

[davidb]

I agree on the production a cross will do better, I breed black Angus bull over short horn cows, But what Im looking for is the best of both worlds,and was wondering if anyone had ever tried it. I would like better feed to egg out of the BOs and better laying out of the leghorns, But if I had to choose since I free range, and my bos look to be feed more so than scratching and finding goodies on there on. and the leghorn is busy looking for worms and bugs, Im leaning toward just going with straight leghorns

 

[killer]

i have rir bread by a lt brown leghorn crosses. and they scratch the yard and woods up looking for stuff. don't know about how they are laying because they are only 4 months old and not laying yet. not even my old hens are laying right now. but good luck.